May. 27th, 2017

May. 27th, 2017

Munch, by Matthew Van Fleet, is a cute, funny board book with a simple premise: animals have mouths, and do different things with them!

For the most part, these things are value neutral. The mouths nibble, laugh, sing, etc.

For the most part, the animals are animals-- human sorts of facial expressions, but no clothing or other identifying markers, including any signs of gender.

Except for the hippo, who is wearing a pink-and-red bow. What does she do with her mouth? "Some mouths don't know when to shut-- blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!"

ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH.

Why is patriarchy so fucking insidious and omnipresent? How am I supposed to protect my child from this when it's bloody everywhere?

I'm not supposed to protect my child from this; I'm supposed to give them tools so they can recognize it and fight it on their own.

FEH.

For the moment, at least, my mom suggested, and sovay concurred, that a little judicious application of white-out and a grey marker should fix the problem. Fox can recognize and fight sexism on their own when they can, you know, talk.